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About Rashid Darden

Rashid Darden is an award-winning novelist based in Washington, DC, who uses the written word as a vehicle for the advancement of justice and social action. His influences are wide and varied, from Paul Beatty and Saul Williams to Jackie Collins and Stephen King. Because of the dearth of such stories in his literary upbringing, his novels will always include characters who are gay or bisexual men of color.

Rashid's first three novels are the Potomac University Series, consisting of Lazarus (2005), Covenant (2011), and Epiphany (2012). Each book was published by Old Gold Soul Press to critical acclaim. The novels told the collected stories of Adrian Collins, a gay college sophomore who pledges a predominately black fraternity; how he deals with the cycle of hazing; and how he navigates both family and romantic relationships. The books resonated deeply with many in the African American, LGBT, and fraternal communities, earning Rashid fans that span the generations. A companion volume of poetry entitled The Life and Death of Savion Cortez was released in 2011.

Rashid's next novel is Birth of a Dark Nation (2013), the first in the Dark Nation series, the stories of African vampires brought to America during the transatlantic slave trade.

His short story "Smith & Jones: Young Americans" was first published in 47 - 16 : Short Fiction and Poetry Inspired by David Bowie (Volume I). In 2019, it will be released for the first time under the Old Gold Soul banner.

2019 will also mark the debut of Yours in the Bond, a spin-off of the Potomac University trilogy, in which Eustace Dailey, Jeremy Jacob Carter, and other young professionals stumble out of college and into the so-called "real world."

In 2017, Rashid's play Message from 'The Legba' was selected as a winner of the OutWrite DC and Theatre Prometheus One Page Play Competition. It was staged in 2018. Rashid won the Elite 25 Award in Literature from Clik Magazine in 2006.

When he is not writing, Rashid teaches. He also spends time volunteering through multiple nonprofit organizations and associations, including Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. In his free time, he edits BlackOrgs.net and writes for Divine Nine Lover. He is available for public speaking engagements on a multitude of topics.

Author Updates

Quakers (or Friends) are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements formally known as the Religious Society of Friends… Members of the various Quaker movements are all generally united in a belief in the ability of each human being to experientially access “the light within”, or “that of God in every one”.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers
For about a decade, I have identified as a Quaker. Somehow, I fell down a Google rabbit hole, found Quaker websites, and s

Welp, I didn’t publish anything in 2018.
But: I did make a decision to expand my one-short short story into an anthology, named it Time, selected a phenomenal cover designer, finished editing it, and now nearly done formatting it.I finished editing Yours in the Bond and found a brilliant illustrator to bring the cover to life.I devised a plan to become a full-time writer.I sketched out/outlined the entire cycle of Dark Nation novels, which seems like it’s going to be a ten book se

December 6, 2018: Breaths shallow, teeth clenched, mouth curled into a sneer: I am livid.
My school is slowly adopting restorative practices to improve our connection to one another and to our students. My organization, The Apollonians, has also adopted restorative practices as a cornerstone principle. We wanted to be part of a group that recognized good ways to deal with inevitable conflict.
So when I discovered there was a new independent film out about restorati

Friday, November 30, 2018
I am looking out of the window at three o’clock in the afternoon after five straight days of teaching. It’s been a long week–not exceptionally taxing, but long nonetheless. My door is propped open, to air out the faint, but constantly lingering aroma of marijuana, now trapped in my student’s coats in the cold weather. There is no cloak room in my class, nor is there one on the corners and in the alleys where they smoke, so the stale stench f

I have been following with great interest, and ultimately great sadness, the recent developments of Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Fraternity that have made it to the media.
According to articles published in The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Hoya [9/7; 8/29], DPE, the nation’s first and apparently only professional fraternity for students interested in foreign service, is plagued with stagnant, problematic leadership and dissatisfied members. Its general

I remember when I used to be a prolific blogger. Now I’m just addicted to social media. *sigh*
I’m on social media every day posting both short observations and longer screeds about whatever is on my mind at the moment. I used to do that daily on Diaryland.
I suppose the purpose of websites has changed altogether, so it’s not as important for me to “blog” daily for engagement. I’m not a newspaper, after all.
Still, I am supposed to be selling bo

Well, hello there!
My name is Rashid Darden. You might know me from this video from Channel 4:

If this is your first time visiting my page, or your first time in a while, welcome! This site has had several incarnations over the years. It is primarily an introduction to my life as a novelist. I love writing. Although I was a creative person at a young age, it was the encouragement of the late, great poet Elaine Magarrell through the

As I write my novels, I tend to make a playlist that helps me get in the mood, set the scene, and channel my characters. This playlist is inspired by the flow and scenes of my first novel, Lazarus.
“Revolution,” Arrested Development. It was important for me to establish young Adrian Collins as a an aspiring revolutionary, someone who bucks trends and upsets the status quo. Lazarus, although initially meant to be timeless, takes place from the Fall of 1998 through the

First, karma:
Daily, I strive to be a better person than I was the day before, while somehow still remaining myself. I have long patience–a skill that I’ve worked on for years. Still, there are times where the bad news or bad deeds just keep piling on top of my chest like a load of bricks.
I don’t treat myself as a victim, though I still acknowledge when my bad fortune is due to the work of others. (And I acknowledge also when bad fortune is my own fault, or

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Much has been made of Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance speech for the Cecil B. deMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. You can make much of it